Seven-year-old border collie Rapid died in a Wellington house fire on Sunday night.
Rapid and his owner, Wellington computer programmer Mike Butler, passed through Central Otago, Dunedin and North Otago in October on a 2325km fundraising walk around the South Island which raised $23,700 for the Cancer Society.
"It does seem unfair. He was a lovely, good-natured dog who gave everything for his community. He walked every step of the way with me, apart from 2km," a distraught Mr Butler said from Wellington yesterday.
Rapid had been recovering in a crate in the lounge after undergoing cruciate ligament surgery, when the Island Bay house caught fire on Sunday night, Mr Butler said.
"The front end of the house looks like a bomb site. We believe it was an electrical fire.
It must have gone up quickly. I left the house at 7.15pm and the police rang me up at 7.25pm," he said.
"He was a very special dog ... Everywhere I go, he goes.
"I'd come home at night and he'd already be curled up on the pillow. You'd think he was ignoring you, but then you'd see the last two inches of his tail wildly wagging away," he said.
"It just doesn't seem very fair at all."
The house was insured, Mr Butler said.
